1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing appendages from avian species. More specifically, this invention relates to removing a portion of the beak of a domestic fowl, in particular, commercial chickens and turkeys.
In the poultry industry, losses primarily occur in flocks from disease and cannibalism. In the latter regard, birds confined in common close quarters exhibit a tendency to peck each other around the comb and/or tail regions and pull feathers. When the pecking produces a break in a bird's skin and a blood spot appears, other birds will constantly peck the bird until it is killed. Although this phenomena is not as telling as the occurrence of a disease might be, the loss of a few birds on a daily basis increases to significant numbers in the poultry meat and egg producing industry.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In an effort to eliminate cannibalism and thereby reduce bird losses, various debeaking apparatus have been designed for the poultry industry. Such devices have generally employed either a knife device to amputate a portion of the bird's beak or a heated knife to blunt and damage or remove the tip of the beak.
Among the various devices which have been made available to the industry, those referred to hereinafter are representative of those in the prior art and generally describe those which have been devised in an attempt to provide poultrymen with a satisfactory apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,679 issued to Leon C. Turner discloses a beak trimming device whereby the upper and lower beaks are trimmed simultaneously. When employing this device, care must be exercised by the use of a tongue depressor to avoid amputating the bird's tongue.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,302,654 issued to Jesse W. Lockmiller is concerned with a combination debeaking-vaccinating device for performing the two operations at the same time.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,857 issued to James Lyon utilizes a heated cutting and cauterizing blade which shears off and cauterizes the end of the beak.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,487 issued to Lamar W. Reynolds also employs a combination cauterizing element and vaccinator with an attached counting device. As in other devices of this type, the operator must place his thumb at the base of the skull and his forefinger around the base of the lower beak and gently squeeze to force open the beak of the bird.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,425 issued to John S. Goodling and Gayner R. McDaniel discloses a poultry beak remover whereby an electric potential generates a spark across the top of a bird's beak to burn a portion thereof.
While the devices disclosed above have sought to solve the problem of effectively and efficiently debeaking poultry, the results have not been satisfactory. The efficiency of the devices is related in part to the skill of the operator. Accordingly, there is a wide variation in debeaking uniformity, effectiveness and permanency. Moreover, the devices often impart a significant trauma and initial beak tenderness which impairs normal feeding and weight gain in young birds.
The foregoing limitations are exacerbated in reference to the broiler industry where the economics of handling birds which will be marketed in eight weeks or so dictates debeaking the bird at the hatchery even though the bird is only a day or two old. At this age the bird is small and somewhat fragile. Accordingly, the debeaking process tends to be somewhat guarded and frequently ineffective.
In raising pullets the above situation is partially relieved by allowing the chick to reach an age of six days or more before debeaking. The difficulty with this partial solution, however, is that the chicks must be manually caught which is time-consuming and expensive.
The foregoing brief description of the problem in the art to which the present invention is addressed, particularly those for providing means for effectively and efficiently debeaking birds, is overcome by the provision of the novel debeaking apparatus and method of the present invention described hereinafter in detail. The term "debeaking" as used herein refers to the removal of a portion of the upper or lower beak or to the removal of a portion of both beaks sufficient to reduce or eliminate the use of the beak in pecking other chicks and other reasons described herein, and not necessarily to removal of the entire beak as the term might literally denote.
Also, it should be understood that while the following description is concerned with removing a portion of the upper beak from young fowl, the removal of a portion of the lower beak is also within the purview of the present invention. The simultaneous debeaking of a portion of the upper and lower beaks is also within the purview of and is readily effected by the present invention. The present invention also contemplates the removal of a toe or toes from a male to prevent injury to a female during mating, from a female to prevent injury when housed in a cage, as well as removal of a toe or toes from both male and female for identification purposes. The term appendage is therefore used herein to generically define the class of members or parts thereof which may be removed from fowl. In view of the overwhelming commercial application to debeaking, the latter is only described herein in detail.